Erica & Lacey go to the Harry Potter Festival

About a month ago, a couple blocks of Western Avenue were transformed into the wizarding world of Harry Potter. The Harry Potter Festival was a free outdoor event for all ages. Thank goodness it was for all ages because I didn't want to be the oldest person in attendance who wasn't a parent or grandparent! LOL

My absolute favorite part was all of the costumes. Look how cute doggie Dobby is!!!

The event was advertised pretty heavily on social media and the turnout was far greater than anyone could have expected (or planned for). Being a local vendor, I think that the magnitude of people who showed up was great! It's always so rewarding and awesome to see your event fill up with shoppers. Every vendor wants to sell out of their merchandise and that is exactly what happened at the Harry Potter Festival. I felt so happy and proud of the vendors there. But many of the other patrons did not feel as I did. As soon as the event started, rants and complaints were posted all over the event's Facebook page. Everyone was so extremely upset with how crowded it was. I agree that the event quickly outgrew its venue, the lines were long and the streets were so crowded that you felt claustrophobic. But, none of that made me angry (and I usually HATE crowds and lines). I anticipated a large turnout so I wasn't upset when I saw over 5,000 people meandering around the streets and, as a pleasant surprise, the lines that Lacey & I waited in moved fairly quickly.

Also, it was a free festival...festivals are always crowded to begin with and throw the word 'free' on top of that and yeah, of course there's going to be a huge turnout!! And honestly, I didn't think it was that crowded once you compared it to other festivals. The Chinese New Year Festival that Wes & I went to in Dallas earlier this year was just as crowded and everyone loved it. El Rastro (open air flea market) in Spain is three times more crowded but it's still one of the most popular Sunday afternoon shopping excursions. If you've ever tried to get on the subway in rush hour, you probably know what crowded truly means... and the Harry Potter Festival wasn't even half as bad. So the haters need to shut their pie holes!

One complaint I do have is the damn hot weather. It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of October. Yuck! We walked from my apartment (about a 1.2 mile trek) and were instantly exhausted as soon as we got there. Gawd, Lacey, we are old! Haha. Anyway, the festival was in full swing when we arrived. At first the crowds were a little overwhelming but we were able to maneuver along the sidewalks. If you wanted to get in a photo opp (they had staged scenes and props everywhere) or to participate in an event or purchase something from a vendor or off a food truck, you had to stand in line. If you were just a spectator, you could move freely along the street. I, of course, wanted to do & experience everything but Lacey was the smart one who suggested that we just walk along the sidewalk and view all the action from a distance. We saw so many fun costumes (I was a little shocked at how many Slytherins there were... I expected most of the people would dress as Gryffindors) with all our walking around. I think we had a better experience just walking around and taking in the sights than we would have had if we stood in line to actually do the activities.   

The festival was sectioned into four parts to represent the four houses of Hogwarts. Each section had its own array of events to participate in. Gryffindor had a Quidditch tournament, sorting hat and other kid's activities. Syltherin had a photo opp in the Azkaban Prison with actors dressed as Death Eaters and Dementors. Hufflepuff is where all of the food trucks were. Ravenclaw was where all of the vendors' tents were. We poked our heads in into each vendor tent and was even able to get into the air conditioned indoor shop with no trouble. Even though we didn't stand in line to use any of the photo props and/or scenes, I was still able to take plenty of pictures from a distance (as you can see from this blog). 

One thing we actually did (instead of just watching) was participate in the arts & crafts booth. There were two tables. At one, we made quills, which were feathers attached to straws. We dipped the feather in glue and decorated it with glitter. The other make & take we did was the golden snitch. This seriously was the most efficient arts & crafts booth I have ever seen.  It was an assembly line of volunteers; one would cut the yarn, another would string a Christmas ornament onto the cut yarn and then the last would drill holes into each side of the ornament and drop the finished product into a large pot. By the time we got up to the table, there was a large pot filled with ornaments we could choose from. After picking one, we scooted down to the next station where a volunteer filled the drilled holes with hot glue. Then she moved us down to the next station where another volunteer was ready to hand us two feathers to stick into the hot glue. We were done in less than a minute. And that is how you keep a line moving!

The last thing we did was visit Honeydukes (the candy shop). The 42nd Street Candy Company did a knock out job transforming their store into Honeydukes. The window displays were so adorable and they had wizarding themed candies and decorations throughout the store. The line for Honeydukes winded all the way down the street but it, too, moved very quickly. The shop was arranged like a little maze where everyone had to walk single file and move through the entire store to get to the check out line. That way you were able to see everything and not have to worry about people cutting in line. I bought two candy sticks (or 'wands' if you want to be festive) and a stick of caramel. 

I think the organizers and vendors did an amazing job. I appreciate all the effort that went into creating an event like this. I was able to see all of its attractions despite the crowds. Lacey & I were able to participate in all of the activities that interested us and all in all, we both really enjoyed the festival.  

Wes takes Erica to a video game convention, day 2

Well, technically it's days 2 & 3 but day 3 was just us driving home; not too interesting. Anyway, Day 2 of RTX went a little like this...

The guy in the top middle picture was wearing a hollowed out sexualized female body pillow. Hahaha!

       The first person we saw in the morning was Spider Man. He was a true actor in full costume and posed when I asked for a picture. After that, I decided that I, too, would be a dedicated RTX attendee. I would ask cosplayers for their pictures, play as many games as I could and even buy something as a souvenir. We did drive 6 hours to get here, gotta take it all in, right?
       We first went to the Free Play panel. This panel was a lot better than Game Attack Live!. The members of the show, Free Play, answered audience questions and ended the interview with a mini rave. We all got glow sticks! LOL After that, we headed to the main video game expo.

I think this guy paid for his pug to get into RTX just for this picture.

The small selection of vendors who weren't t-shirts or posters. Wait, why is my picture crooked?

The first game I wanted to play was Butt Sniffin' Pugs. Your character is a pug and you pair up with another pug to run around a park. You can bark at a hotdog vendor, pee, take a dump and, of course, sniff butts. The game was pretty silly. There were a lot of indie game developers at RTX. And there were some big name ones, too, like the newest edition of Halo. I wanted to play some of each but that would have to wait until the afternoon. Next we went in search of our souvenirs. We each bought a t-shirt. 

Then it was lunch time!! We ate at a creperie. I've only ever had sweet crepes so I decided to order a savory one. It was amazing. The smoked salmon was soooo good!! After lunch, it was back to the arcade at JW Marriot (my request). I played Centipede as well as some other games. I played a five-person group X-Men game. I was the weakest link but we still managed to kick some villain butt.

       We spent the rest of the afternoon at the video game expo hall. I played Song of the Deep (a new PS4 game) and Capsule Force. I didn't enjoy Capsule Force but Song of the Deep was fun. There was a ten minute play time limit. I spent seven of my ten minutes trying to navigate through a simple maze of waterfalls. I'm sure all of the gamers around me were screaming in their heads with frustration. We played a few more games but I don't remember which ones. Most of the games had a long waiting line so I didn't play as many as I would have liked.

       I took tons of pictures of costumes. My favorite was this group of girls dressed as RWBY. It's some anime that consists of four teenage girls dressed in either red, white, black or yellow. These girls' costumes looked exactly like the posters of RWBY that the vendors had for sale. (There's a small picture of them on last week's blog.) Unfortunately, we missed two of the costumes that we really wanted. We saw a girl walk by dressed as Spider Woman and a guy dressed as a character in Fallout. I couldn't catch them in time and we never saw them again. 

       There was a beef jerky vendor there (JerkyXP) and their mascot was an adorable Yorkie. He was one of the main attractions. 

Jack the CEO was so well behaved and precious. 

After a full second day of RTX, we went back to the Congress Avenue Bridge for a second night of bat viewing. This time we went to the park underneath the bridge. There were a lot of people camped out there the night before so I figured the viewing might be better there. And it was!! We saw more bats fly out and we could see them clearer because we were right there close to them. It was a long day so instead of going out to eat, we opted for pizza in the hotel room.

I wanted to take a video of the bat flight but couldn't capture it. So here's a pre-bat flight view.

The next morning, it was time to say goodbye to Austin. There was surprisingly no traffic going home. Still had construction but people were driving normally. We stopped at Texas Smokehouse somewhere between Austin and Fort Worth for some beef jerky. They had free samples so I asked for the most exotic one I could find, python jerky. It was not good. It was hard, chewy and extremely sweet. They had a varied selection but we settled on plain original beef jerky.

The world's finest gas station.

On the drive into Austin, I kept seeing billboards for Buc-ee's. It's just a gas station so I didn't know why there was a billboard advertisement every few miles. On the drive home, I decided that we needed to get gas at Buc-ee's. It was not "just a gas station." It is probably the largest gas station in existence. And the convenience store was about the size of Wal-Mart. I have never been impressed with a gas station/convenience store but now I am. Buc-ee's is a mecca for travelers. Come hungry, come needing gas, come to relieve your bowels, come for snacks, come for souvenirs...Buc-ee's has it all! They even had a mascot beaver walking around posing for pictures with the children. I'm not going to lie, Wes & I wanted a picture with Buc-ee but he walked away before we could snag him.

We had a nice two days in Austin. All of the other trips we've taken (Fabric District, visiting my relatives, Elvis wedding ceremony) were my ideas so it was nice to partake in one of Wes' adventures. I enjoyed my RTX experience, I finally got to see a bat flight (still bitter that we missed the one at Carlsbad Caverns), the food was good and our hotel was top notch. And of course, Buc-ee's. LOL 

Wes takes Erica to a video game convention, day 1

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Wes & I went to RTX 2016 in Austin, Texas. For those of you who don't know what that is
   1. don't feel bad because I didn't know what it was either until we got there;
   2. it's a huge video game expo hosted by Rooster Teeth, an Internet entertainment company
   3. it partnered with SGC (Screw Attack Gaming) so, basically, two video game conventions for the price of one!

I don't know much about video games, and I know even less about YouTube and podcast celebrities so this was a completely virgin experience for me...first time in Austin & first time at a video game convention. LOL It was pretty much just as I expected: tons and tons of very passionate geeks in their geek heaven. It was definitely interesting and I ended up having a good time. And, most importantly, Wes liked it as well.

       Austin is quite a way's away from Oklahoma City so we decided to stop at the half-way point and have brunch in Fort Worth. We ate at the Ol' South Pancake House. It was delicious! I got the smothered biscuits, which came in a huge portion; I couldn't finish them so I packed them up to go. They ended up going bad so I couldn't even eat them that night after carrying them around all day. I was pretty devastated.
       The rest of the drive was awful! There was construction practically all the way from Fort Worth to Austin and traffic was moving slower than molasses. I assumed there was a bad accident up ahead or various lane closures but there was nothing. Just regular construction; the construction on I-35 going through Moore is worse. But for some reason, it took us about three hours to get from Hillsboro to Belton, only 76 miles away. I stopped timing it after the City Limit sign for Belton because it was just too frustrating.

People were in costume at the convention, obviously, but also out on the street and at local restaurants. 

The only thing that I had made plans to attend (aka watch and take pictures) at RTX was the costume contest. It was from 4-5pm and we got into Austin at 5pm. Arrrrgh, just missed it!! But I was still able to take a TON of pictures of costumed convention goers throughout the weekend. The convention was held at the Austin Convention Center, JW Marriot Hotel and Hilton Hotel. There were only panels at the Hilton so we didn't go in there. The JW Marriot had panels, a section for computer based games and a section for arcade games (my favorite). The Austin Convention Center had numerous rooms for panels & signings and a huge room of video games & vendors. That is where we spent a majority of our time.

Top: arcade at JW Marriot. Bottom: a group of people playing Just Dance. The lady in front was on fire!

We spent a couple of hours at RTX exploring and deciding on which games we wanted to come back to play later. We also looked at all the vendors and Wes picked out a few panels to go to. The vendors were a bit of a let down. They were waaaay too similar. I guess I'm used to showing at craft shows where only one type of each product is allowed. Almost all of the RTX vendors there were either selling t-shirts or posters. If I had the money and time to rent booth space, I would probably make a killing selling my RagsReborn pillows. 

Just before dusk, we left to go to the Congress Avenue Bridge. There is a huge colony of bats that live under the bridge and they fly out nightly around 8:30pm (their website stated 8:32pm for the month of July). We lined up along the bridge with all the other spectators and waited...and waited. The bats ended up flying out to fetch their dinner an hour later. There were tons of bats but we could hardly see them because we were too far away. 

After the bat viewing, we went to dinner. I didn't really like Austin (I honestly thought the city was kinda ugly with poor landscaping & litter everywhere) but there was good food downtown. And good food is one of the reasons why I travel. We ate dinner at Gus's World Famous Hot & Spicy Fried Chicken. It was sooo good! 

Candid pictures of cosplayers. My favorite part of RTX.

We headed to the JW Marriot after dinner for a little more video gaming before the night was over. I discovered my new favorite arcade game, Centipede, and we watched the Game Attack Live! panel. It was four grown-ass men dressed in onesies playing video games & cursing at each other while someone recorded it all and put it on YouTube. I was not impressed. We left the panel early and I played a little more Centipede before going to the hotel. Our hotel was amazing. It was an extended stay hotel so our room was huge. It was probably the same size as the apartment that I am currently living in. All in all, we had a good first day! Day 2 blog to come next week!!